The effects of Hurricane Harvey have yet to emerge, but most analysts concur that in the short-term there will be changes to established product flows since so many production sites in the U.S. Gulf have been disabled. U.S. Gulf With nearly every chemical producer having declared force majeure, either as a precaution or as a direct result of damage or flooding, there has been virtually no new inquiry in the market into the Far East. Instead, numerous existing fixtures have been cancelled. Traded...

A week after Hurricane Harvey stopped drenching the U.S. Gulf Coast, there were signs of good news for the lubricants industry as refineries containing the nations two largest base oil plants moved to reopen. Motiva said yesterday that it was in the final stages of assessing equipment and initial stages of restarting operations at its Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, home of a 40,300 barrel per day API Group II base oil plant. In a press release the company said it expected the refinery to be opera...

Gazprom Neft last week commissioned a process oil production unit at its refinery in Omsk, Western Siberia. The U.S. $7 million plant has 17,000 metric tons per year capacity and is operated by Gazpromneft-Lubricants. The company said it introduced its own technology for production of distillate aromatic extract for manufacturing of oil-extended natural or synthetic rubber used for production of tires and other fabricated rubber products. Gazpromneft-Lubricants treated distillate aromatic extrac...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Manufacturers across the United States are reporting a shortage of skilled workers and applicants, as millennials shy away from training programs and careers in manufacturing. A panel of manufacturers met to discuss how to cater the hiring process to millennials workplace desires and increase employee retention rates at last weeks Petroleum Packaging Councils fall meeting held here. Roughly 61 percent of manufacturing executives report difficulties finding the skilled wo...

When it comes to mineral base oils, the bulk of global supply is firmly in the hands of multinational oil majors, like ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and SK Lubricants, and government-controlled national oil companies (think Aramco, Petrochina, Sinopec). Those seven players hold over 40 percent of conventional base oil refining capacity. But what about nonconventional base stocks? If you include API Group III stocks in the tally, a few oil majors and NOCs remain in the picture. But narrow the frame ...